Josh and I always seem to whip up at least one huge outing every summer season. But when he suggested Lone Eagle Peak for the 2019 version, I didn’t really know much about it. I knew it was a cool looking mountain deep in the heart of the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I knew it wasn’t even a 12er. And I knew that it had a sweet name. But that was about it. As it turns out, I wasn’t exactly wrong about any of those things, I just didn’t have the full appreciation of how great this mountain really is. And so, I agreed to another summer epic, with essentially zero knowledge of what I was getting into. But in retrospect, I’m sure glad I did. Keep Reading….
As the snow falls outside with summer pretty definitively in the rear view, I thought it would be fun to look back on a few of the better trail run adventures Anna-Lisa and I did over the latter part of the season. Amidst trying to wrap up my last few Bicentennial 13ers this fall, we were able to get out and explore several local Gore and Holy Cross Wilderness trails. Keep reading…
Well after 15 years of slogging up piles of rocks and the hundreds of summits beginning to all blend together, I decided to pick up a new hobby, inspired by good pal Ben Conners. He reminded me that I used to poo poo on running and that within a few years, I’ll probably be signing up for 100 milers. I don’t doubt that I viewed running as silly, but I do doubt I’ll ever run a 100’er.
Anyways, my first ultra was everything I thought it would be. Happy, sad, angry, exciting, terrifying, painful, rewarding. I’m not sure many other activities can elicit all those emotions in one. In retrospect, I’m also not sure why I chose the Indian Creek 55k. I guess it just sounded intriguing and I had never visited the area before. Now it’s a place I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Funny how that works. I spent the majority of the summer working up to the race via Half marathons, local races around Westminster and trail runs in the foothills. Keep reading…
On Tuesday I headed over to Aspen intent on finishing off the group of nine 13ers accessible from the Conundrum Creek drainage west of Ashcroft. Last July I hit six of them, running the ridge from Hunter Peak out to Triangle Pass, but left the last three summits including 13,803-foot Mt. Raoul for another day. Down to only two Bicentennial peaks left to finish the Top 200 in the state (Raoul and Organ Mountain in the La Garitas), and armed with a perfect fall weather forecast, it was time to head back up Conundrum and knock off the rest of those peaks. Keep reading…
